merrifood

Snickerdoodle cherry muffins

Posted by merrifood on December 25, 2012 · 2 Comments 

Happy holidays to everyone!  I must admit that I haven’t done the usual “bake 10 kinds of cookies” for Christmas this year – with my re-adjustment to Australia, I’ve been so happy to be able to bake and cook that I haven’t really focused on holiday-themed baked goods at all (yes, this is out of character for me).  That being said, these muffins would be an absolutely amazing Christmas morning treat.  I made them for yet another birthday that I’d missed due to my time in Manila.  Cherries are normally super expensive here, but they are currently in season, so I was actually able to use fresh cherries.  If you can’t find fresh cherries, feel free to use blueberries, any combination of berries (fresh is better but frozen would work as long as they are thawed out), or even cut up apples would taste delicious with the cinnamon sugar topping.

These are slightly more time intensive than your typical muffin but despite the rather long looking list of ingredients, the two parts to the muffin use the same ingredients so it’s not actually that much.  They basically use a cookie topping instead of just a crumb topping or extra sprinkling of cinnamon or sugar so the muffin top is really exceptional.  These muffins are in a different league from your typical breakfast treat, so trust me, they are well worth the bit of extra time.

Snickerdoodle cherry muffins (adapted from Top With Cinnamon) – makes 12

Grease a muffin pan or line the 12 cups of a muffin pan with muffin liners.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Combine the cinnamon-sugar ingredients in a shallow bowl and set aside.

Make the muffins: in a saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the next 5 ingredients until you get a sandy mixture. Stir in the egg and milk, mixing until just combined. Stir in the berries.  Divide the batter among the muffin cups.

Make the snickerdoodles: Cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the remaining 1/2 egg and then add flour till it forms a dough that can be easily handled.  (With the egg, I’d suggest just cracking one into a small bowl, mixing it up, and then dividing it in half, one part for the muffins and one part for the snickerdoodles.)   Then make 12 balls out of the dough and coat them in the cinnamon sugar mixture, flattening them into little disks as you do.  Top each muffin cup with a disk of cookie dough, and bake for 20-25 minutes until puffed and crackly.  Insert a toothpick and make sure it comes out clean to ensure they are done.

Let them cool for about 10-15 minutes, and then enjoy warm or completely cooled – they are really delicious either way!

Making the muffin batter – melting butter in the pan and adding the sugar

Adding the rest of ingredients – as you see, it looks rather sandy until you add the milk

Dividing the batter among the muffin cups…mmmm lots of cherries

Making the snickerdoodles – rolling the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar

Topping the muffins with the little disks of dough – so cute

Finished product!

As I continue to bake and cook up a storm, expect a whole lot more recipes to come in the next few weeks…I have a backlog of heaps of things I’ve been baking and cooking!